By William Madouk
Preparations have kicked off in Juba to build the capacity of South Sudanese youth who are going to participate in the United Nations annual general assembly in New York this year.
The opening session of five-day assessment conference held on Tuesday was meant to determine competent personalities who will represent the country in the scheduled UN assembly in September.
Speaking to the press, Joseph Kenyi, President of the United Nations Association of South Sudan (UNASS) said two delegates will be selected to represent South Sudan for the first time.
Mr. Kenyi said the two will comprise a talented male and female, they will present to the assembly challenges facing youth in the African youngest nation, South Sudan since 2011 independence.
“We have been preparing the UN General Assembly since last year”, said Mr. Kenyi “So, I am very, very happy that South Sudan youth will go to present their challenges at highest level of UN general assembly”.
Mr. Kenyi said the selection of duo will be assessed on basis of education, communication and leadership skills after which the candidates will meet with other youth in the region before traveling to the New York in September.
According to Mr. Kenyi, South Sudan is a country with youth constituting over 72 per cent of its population, facing numerous challenges including unemployment, and lack of entrepreneurial skills, among others, resulting to rampant harmful activities among the young people.
The Secretary for External Affairs of South Sudan National Youth Union, Beng Khomboor said the youth representatives will be expected to advocate for solution to challenges including peace, climate change, agricultural and capacity building.
“The challenges facing the young are very many and they will emphasize on these issues which the issues of interest to the young people of South Sudan”, said Mr. Beng.
He added “If you do not speak out things goes unnoticed since this is the first time for the youth to participate in the UN general assembly, we expect these youth to be very vibrant, and echo all the challenges to the assembly”.
The assessment conference, implemented by UNASS with support by the Federal Government of Germany through CRISP aimed to empower South Sudanese youth to continue participating in the annual UN general assembly.
The two representatives will be hand-picked from over twenty young men and women currently taking part in the assessment conference.